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Domestic Furnishings

Washboards, armchairs, lamps, and pots and pans may not seem to be museum pieces. But they are invaluable evidence of how most people lived day to day, last week or three centuries ago. The Museum's collections of domestic furnishings comprise more than 40,000 artifacts from American households. Large and small, they include four houses, roughly 800 pieces of furniture, fireplace equipment, spinning wheels, ceramics and glass, family portraits, and much more.

The Arthur and Edna Greenwood Collection contains more than 2,000 objects from New England households from colonial times to mid-1800s. From kitchens of the past, the collections hold some 3,300 artifacts, ranging from refrigerators to spatulas. The lighting devices alone number roughly 3,000 lamps, candleholders, and lanterns.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a brown hare with mottled markings crouched among low grasses.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two male reindeer on boulders, with forested foothills in the background. One is in summer pelage (coat) the other in winter pelage (coat).

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a white male wolf crouching in a clearing and chewing on a bone.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a brown male cougar standing over his felled prey. Forested mountains in the background.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two male musk oxen standing on a grassy plateau with rocky mountains in the background.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a large white lemming and a smaller brown lemming crouching on boulders amidst wildflowers.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two shrews scampering across boulders toward a pond. Boulders are surrounded by wildflowers on the right and barren trees on the left.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two white goats, one standing and one lying, on a rocky cliff in a mountainous setting.

This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.

This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two brown squirrels climbing a dead tree branch upon which grows a vine.